All That Glitters Isn’t Always Gold: Trinidad James Admits to Rapping Negative Lyrics Just to Sell Records

His name is Trinidad James and he hails from Atlanta. He’s only been rapping for a couple of years and already has a song in the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

He burst on to the scene with the single, “All Gold Everything” in which he raps, “Popped a molly, I’m Sweating (whoo!)” and then proceeds to repeat himself over and over again.

For those who don’t know, Molly, ecstasy’s hipper cousin, has been big in rap for a while now.

As a mom, I’m concerned.

But apparently, Trinidad James is too, answering those critical of his drug references by saying, “When I made that song I wasn’t thinking about the kid who was going to listen to the song. I was just speaking about my life, and if you can relate, great.”

But now, Trinidad James appears tired of dealing with the backlash from the music he makes. In a recent interview with XXL, he essentially laid it all out there, saying he makes ignorant music because that’s what sells records.

“There are some artists who make drug references just to look cool, or just trying to appeal to somebody, right? But sh*t, dude, people have been doing that forever,” explained Trinidad. “It’s not even about drugs, it can be about anything–cars, jewelry, whips. Artists make music, and some artists talk about sh*t they really like, but it’s on the listener to decipher if it’s real and if they really f*** with it or if they’re going along with it because everyone else is. That’s how this game set up, man. You’ve got people who want to hear about the sh*t that they want, but not the sh*t that they need to hear about. People don’t want to hear positive rap as much as people want to hear negative rap.”

Pretty sad. But if Trinidad James is speaking the truth, it says just as much about us as it does about him. But here’s another truth. I can’t rely on Trinidad James to produce music I want my sons to listen to any more than I can rely on Quentin Tarantino to produce movies I want them to see or Rockstar Games to release video games that I want them to play.